Doctoral research [1981, Vol. 8, no. 2]

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The Accounting Historians Journal Vol. 8, No. 2 Fall 1981
DOCTORAL RESEARCH
Maureen H. Berry, Editor UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS
Two interrelated themes are dealt with in this selection of recent doctoral dissertations: government fiscal policy and economic de-velopment under certain social and political conditions. Rather than attempting to separate these issues, the topics are presented in their historical sequence. Thus, the reader may become aware of some of the inherent similarities in research approach: such as the fact that two authors chose to examine tax policy by studying the men who influenced it.
The political perils of attempting to initiate and administer un-popular fiscal policy are illuminated in McCollim's study of Nicolas Desmaretz. Desmaretz, who served as controller general of the fi-nances in the reign of Louis XIV, suffered the consequences of de-signing a tax system which both extended its coverage and equal-ized its load. He was not only the first to introduce this innovation, he was also the first controller general to be dismissed for it. He was, of course, ultimately vindicated, but this took some 80 years or so. In the meantime, the rights of privileged interests had already been questioned, violently, in the American Colonies. We hear the echoes of fears for economic survival amid financial turmoil in Larew's research which evaluated banking practices of the Cincin-nati branch of the Second Bank of the United States.
The Cincinnati area was undoubtedly rescued from financial dis-aster by the expansion of industry which took place in the early 1830s. Dyer takes up the study of antebellum business activity, moving northwards to Wisconsin, to examine concentration of own-ership in newspaper publishing and its effects on editorial opinion. In the meantime, the lower American continent was also experienc-ing an economic boom. Lamia analyzed the various economic cycles in Argentina, during the remainder of the nineteenth century, using a new theoretical model which identified primary causal fac-tors and reinterpreted the several crises of the period.